Dec

03

When talking about interruptions we usually talk about other people or external factors. However, we sometimes voluntarily interrupt ourselves. You interrupt yourself when you:

  • Walk around the office without a clear goal
  • Often have a chat with colleagues in order to better know them
  • Go out frequently for a coffee or snack
  • Suddenly make unplanned phone calls for networking
  • Suddenly have to check something on the Internet

If you recognize yourself here I recommend keeping a log of these interruptions for a few weeks. In the ideal case you also write down what you should have been doing during this time, since these interruptions could also closely be linked to procrastination. 

When your analysis is complete you can start working on changing these bad habits, which significantly reduce your productivity.

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Define a minimum time during which you are going to work on a large but unpleasant task. During this time frame you are not allowed to move out of your chair, make a call, surf the net, etc. You only focus on this one task.

Even if you cannot complete it in one time, this approach makes sure that you can make major progress. After a few sessions the task will not look that terrible anymore and you change to a more positive attitude towards this task.

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Instead of procrastinating did you ever consider delegating some tasks you do not like to colleagues or to a vendor? Of course this strategy does not always work but another person eventually does not regard this task as unpleasing.

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One of the main sources for procrastination and wasted time is the TV. The purpose of the TV is to provide us information and to entertain us. Both can be done at specific times with specific programs.

  • Don’t run the TV in the background. Chances are high that suddenly find something interesting and stick to it.
  • Don’t flip through the channels without a clear target. If you are not looking for something specific switch the TV off.
  • Consider renting movies rather than watching them on TV channels with advertisement breaks. In total you spend less time to watch the movie and you benefit from uninterrupted entertainment.
  • It might sound a bit old-fashioned but the radio also is an excellent source of information. It is easier to listen to the radio than watching TV when doing something else at the same time (e.g. in the morning in the bathroom).
  • Consider using alternative sources for information on the Internet or through your mobile phone.

I am not against TV in general. It is about the right balance. Consider how many hours you spend in front of the TV in your life and how many of your dreams could be true now already had you been working on them instead.

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A special form of procrastination is to postpone work on week-ends. “I will not do it know, because I can do it on week-end where I have more time etc.)”. On week-end it then often is hard getting started and kept postponing tasks from Saturday to Sunday and ended up completing things Sunday evening or even Monday morning. The remaining time of the week-end I always had a bad conscious and I could not enjoy my recreation time.

As a general principle you therefore better don’t even think of work during week-end unless you are in an exceptionally busy period. You also avoid the danger of making it a habit, which results in working all the time and consequently increasing the risk of a burn-out.

On a Friday I rather work late without limit to complete all tasks for the week and prepare for the next week. Once all is finished I can really enjoy my free time and don’t have to bother about unfinished tasks. When I feel the sensation of postponing something to the week-end I motivate myself by imagining what I will all do in my free time.

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Aug

26

When you catch yourself procrastinating you should take a break and ask yourself “What am I avoiding?”. In general you will quickly find the answer (if you did not know right from the beginning). Now you take away all other staff in front of you and think of how you will reward yourself after completion if this thing you are avoiding.

Then you start working on the most difficult or unpleasant part of this task. Once you overcame it the rest will go very smoothly and at the end you can enjoy your reward.

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When I talk to other people on time management many tell me that they simply do not have the discipline to be effective. I think that discipline with regards to time management is a bad thing and it makes people fail early in their efforts to improve themselves.

If you try to have discipline you generally tend to try too much at once. It is often about changing habits and this is a difficult task requiring time. Then you feel that you are failing and accuse yourself that you simply lack discipline. This is a very negative feeling and it kills all motivation to go ahead. As a result often the entire improvement project is at stake and people simply give up. On top of this the mental hurdle to start again get higher and higher with each failure.

So, my recommendation is - if you want to change yourself NEVER use the word discipline again!

Changing your life and your habits is all about motivation and positive enforcement and rewards. Before you start your personal development program you write down the following:

  • Why do I want to change this?
  • What is motivating me?
  • What can be quick wins?
  • How can I reward myself?, what reward can I give myself for achieving milestones and what will I reward myself with after accomplishment?
Then you start with the quick wins.  These should be easy to achieve and even if they only have small impact you should go for them. Achieving these quick wins will make you feel good and also hungry for more. Each time you have achieved something, you shall reward yourself. Use small rewards for small achievements and big rewards for large achievements.
After completion of the quick wins you are ready to start a bit more challenging steps. However, it is important that you go step by step and don’t try too much. When you don’t manage to achieve a step, don’t blame yourself. Resisting change an absolutely normal reaction. Analyze why you did not achieve your goal and try to find a better way. You might also increase the reward you will give yourself if you feel that the next step is more challenging to you than you initially anticipated. Keep you motivation high and NEVER blame yourself or others.
Start the big steps when you emotionally feel ready. It does not make sense if your mind tells you “I should” but everything in your body tells you “I don’t want at all”. In such a case I recommend to review your motivation and to ask yourself again why you want to achieve tis objective.
As a summary keep in mind that you will achieve much more using positive motivation rather trying to have discipline. I think that many people who are known to have great discipline in reality were real artists in self-motivation rather than extremely strong in their mind.
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If you belong to the kind of people who can waist a lot of time gaming on your computer this is a easy but effective advise.

Delete all games on your computer. Almost every computers get delivered with a few games on it by default such as mine sweeper or solitaire. If your company does not deinstall them before delivering the computer you should first deinstall the games by your own.

What is not there cannot distract you - yes it’s that easy.

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Jul

07

Everyone can spend a lot of time just running idle and hanging around or just starring somewhere. This can happen at many occasions, whilst commuting or waiting for someone or just in between two tasks.

If you determine never to be idle to can significantly increase your productivity. A day has 1,440 minutes besides the time you sleep you can use every minute in a productive way.

After you took the determination you will always look for some task or action. This does not only related to work but also applies to fun and leisure.

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